Image is everything when it comes to marketing. But when Adn

ANDY WOOD reflects on a new approach

It goes without saying that companies such as Adnams need to build a significant consumer franchise and continue to create value for their customers if they are to survive and prosper in today's beer market.

Six years ago Adnams was one of a number of well-regarded local breweries in a highly-fragmented industry, which was itself in turmoil. Adnams brewed some award-winning beers, ran a well-known wine business, and owned around 80 pubs and a couple of hotels.

With hindsight we acknowledge that each business area was operating somewhat in isolation. Perhaps the most unusual characteristic of the business was that well over two thirds of its beer sales were in the free trade, rather than through its own pubs.

Following much internal discussion, and an acceptance within the company that future success relied upon greater organisational cohesion and above all building a brand, a marketing team was recruited and our first marketing agency partners appointed.

The brand-building journey

Six years into the brand-building journey, the Adnams brand has achieved a great deal and is now among the fastest growing in the UK.

In setting out on a brand-building path we started from the pretext that the concept of and the practice of branding can be one of the most misunderstood notions in the business world. All too often companies are seduced into focussing on tangible external representations ­ logos, advertising, strap-lines and the like. Important though these factors are, they are only part of the story.

The reality is that a brand is far more complex than a name or logo. Instead, it is a set of expectations and associations evoked from experience with the company and its products.

Expectations and associations

These expectations and associations are formed and occur throughout the customers' entire experience with the brand, not just through its marketing and advertising alone. Tapping into these cannot be a superficial exercise carried out by one team, but must become the lifeblood of an organisation. This is particularly relevant in the case of an organisational or umbrella brand such as Adnams.

We also viewed the branding process as like building an asset ­ equally important to the future of the business as people, equipment or capital. It, therefore, became a process in which we felt we needed to engage as many people as possible, if we were to gain a complete buy-in to what we were trying to achieve.

This meant in addition to developing the external representation of the brand we needed to ensure complete alignment on all the "touch-points" customers and consumers have with us. Be it seeing our current, large, outdoor posters, presentation at the bar, tasting the product and dealing with a member of the team, either face to face or on the telephone, all needed to be uniquely Adnams and deliver exactly to the expectation the customer holds.

So, not only did we change the external presentation, we worked long and hard to change our internal culture and bring about a deep understanding of what we were trying to achieve.

Returning to the brand, it is built upon the values people have come to associate with Adnams: distinctive individuality, social relaxation, stimulating company, refreshing and contemporary in feel, but with a wonderful sense of being rooted in a specific place.

Our brief was relatively simple

We felt the word "Southwold" itself was irrelevant, hence Beer from the Coast, but the connotations it brings as a real place with real people is fundamental. Therefore in terms of brand communication our brief was relatively simple ­ to articulate these messages in a way that appealed to the broad cross-section of our local audience, while still having clarity and resonance with a less familiar set of consumers further afield.

We set out with the principal aim of creating a character for the brand that sits comfortably within the category, yet sufficiently disrupts it by being different ­ getting noticed in a way that encourages consumers not only to try and remember Adnams, but to begin to rethink their perceptions of cask beer by seeing it as a stylish, premium alternative to homogeneous and safe global brands.

Evidence of our success comes ultimately from our consumers and fortunately we are seeing them drink the beer in ever greater numbers, something about which the whole Adnams team can be justifiably proud.

The heart of our proposition

Working hard to shift consumer perceptions lies at the heart of our proposition, and our brand strategy attempts to achieve this by delivering a message that is simple and authentic and that allows the unique character and premium nature of Adnams to shine through.

The thorny and more generic subject of product quality remains an issue in this regard and the long overdue initiatives going on around the industry to do with improving beer quality must succeed if we are to reverse the overall decline of cask beer.

But improving quality in itself, while essential, will be no panacea ­ after all it is only what the consumer expects. If we are to restore not only volumes but value to the category, these quality initiatives need to work in tandem with marketing communications that capture the imagination of consumers, establishing the premium nature of cask beer and achieving a shift in deep-rooted mindsets.

This is just the role for challenger brands such as Adnams.